3/26/2009 @ 11:20AM

Dinosaur Markdowns

You know times are tough when paleontologists start putting dinosaurs on the auction block. In late March Western Paleontological Laboratories of Lehi, Utah tried to sell a 150-million-year-old Dryosaurus altus at auction in New York. Much to the dismay of the lab, which didn’t want to take less than $290,000 for the specimen, bidding stalled below $250,000.

“Our employees have to eat,” laments Western Paleo’s chief executive, Clifford Miles, who would have preferred to sell the fossilized skeleton, unearthed in 1993 from a Wyoming quarry, directly to a museum, per his usual practice. But since the economic crisis hit, says Miles, institutions have put the kibosh on acquisitions, and Miles has had trouble making payroll. Miles remains hopeful that auctioneer I.M. Chait Gallery can still find a buyer.

Given the deep pockets of private fossil collectors like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicolas Cage and former
Microsoft
executive Nathan Myhrvold, it made sense to court nonmuseum money. Also, this late Jurassic plant eater is diminutive for a dinosaur. At 9 feet long, the elegantly curved skeleton, with its delicate, birdlike head and sweeping tail, might look nice in a living room.

There was also the chance that a nonmuseum bidder would fork over the cash and then donate the specimen. That happened in 1997, when
McDonald’s
and
Disney
put up most of the $8.36 million for Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex, at
Sotheby’s
. The buyers gave Sue to the Field Museum in Chicago.